The most exciting aspect of my experience working in the development sector has been settling in a new place, interacting with the local communities, and gaining their acceptance. Sports has always been a major bridge for me to connect with new communities. It was in the same interest that I approached local footballers when we first shifted to the field station in Pamban. 

In early January, I came across people playing football in Mandapam, a town panchayat located right next to Pamban Bridge. I was able to familiarise myself with the community and the neighbourhood by playing with them on a regular basis. The ground is situated at a locality named Mandapam Camp, a Sri Lankan Tamil settlement which allowed me to interact with both locals and immigrants. One fine day, as we wrapped up our regular evening football match in the Mandapam Camp and sat together to chill and head home, a fellow player brought up the best location-appropriate conversation possible. There are two questions in Tamil Nadu which have generated discussions for multiple years: 

1. Is Rajinikanth coming to politics? 

and 

2. Is LTTE leader, Prabhakaran, alive or dead? 

Although the first question has settled in dust recently, the second question remains controversial as rumours of Prabhakaran surviving the war appear periodically and generate intense debates. To have this latter discussion in Mandapam Camp with Sri Lankan Tamils, as an outsider, was an engrossing experience.

It was after this conversation, I realised the emotional proximity I had with the entire team and that I wanted to learn more about their lives. Particularly, their involvement in fisheries. Fisheries in Palk Bay and conflict with Sri Lanka have been intertwined for decades now, and the issue has been well documented and debated in the media albeit with no representation from the people who belong to the region. Hence, the issue has been perceived as largely rabble-rousing and without rational conclusions among the majority of non-locals, like me. Working in Ramanathapuram gave me the chance to speak to multiple interesting people, to understand the issue in a well-grounded manner, and to acquire a whole new perspective on the issue. 

The history of transboundary incursions in Palk Bay is a lengthy issue which dates back to pre-independence and can’t be summed up in this one article. Here, I would like to focus on the present-day scenario and the opinions of the locals at Mandapam Camp. From the point of view of some in the community, the major dispute between Indian fishermen and Sri Lankan fishermen is more economical than political. The Sri Lankan government has enforced a law prohibiting bottom trawling in its territorial waters with political consensus, including local Tamils. The logic was that the practice may result in the depletion of fishing grounds, a reality that has unfortunately struck Indian waters. This ban, along with a smaller fleet has resulted in Sri Lankan waters being more productive than Indian nearshore areas. The depletion of resources on the Indian side has pushed local trawl owners to illegally conduct their bottom trawling activities in Sri Lankan waters for economic gains, despite being aware of the risks involved. It resulted in fishing vessels being confiscated and multiple Indian fishermen being arrested. While many more nuances and geopolitical considerations are involved in this dispute, here I will only touch upon the point of view of the immigrants inhabiting the camp at present. While people have their own opinions and adopt different political stances regarding this dispute, a certain group of people in the Palk Bay region on the Indian side are circumstantially denied the opportunity to voice their opinions – the Sri Lankan immigrants who live in Mandapam Camp.

Mandapam Camp is Tamil Nadu’s largest refugee camp for Sri Lankans in India. The residents in the camp believe this to be among the better-maintained camps when it comes to amenities and living conditions compared to the other camps spread across the state. Here, residents are given a small stipend and rations on the basis of their age. Although they have been provided with school education for free, the dropout rates are high and only a few pursue higher education. Even people who have completed their higher education tend to work as fish workers around this region.  They lack access to formal opportunities elsewhere due to the attached stigma they face for being immigrants. The paradox of this entire fishing issue stems from the fact that the majority of the locals themselves are employed as fish workers in the local trawling operations, which serves as one of their main sources of income. Additionally, they are not allowed to own their own fishing vessels and are mostly employed in labour-intensive aspects of post-catch activities. This includes loading fish onto trucks and transporting them to fish meals as well as fish oil plants. Recent surges in the reduction fisheries sector have been beneficial for the locals as this has resulted in more frequent demand for their informal work with better wages. This is the complex situation they face when conversations about the topic are raised – there is a conflict between the political and ethical stance of their home country and their financial circumstance in their current country. Apart from working as fish workers, they are also trained in manual jobs like construction work for which they migrate across the state during the ban–and-lean fishing period. Residents of Mandapam Camp, for generations, have also inculcated traditional knowledge of a Sri Lankan indigenous practice called patti valai (stake net fishing) for the construction of which they have been employed by local fishermen. The live fish caught using this method fetches a higher price in general in the local markets. 

However, they manage to get through each day, relying on social connections within the local population for informal employment. The future seems bleak for these immigrants due to the depletion of fishing resources, stigmatisation, inability to find formal employment opportunities, and the political and economic situation in their home country. Moreover, this has made the foreseeable future unstable and the chances of upward social mobility questionable. An additional caveat is the shift towards a more nationalism-oriented politics currently prevailing across the world which has been gradually negating the well-being of immigrants. These things make me wonder what the future may hold for the residents, many of whom I consider to be my friends.